Online BMD Tutorials.

Civil Registration

From the start of Civil Registration all births and deaths have had to be registered at
the local Register Office. Likewise, marriages would be registered at the venue or at the Register
Office. Quarterly, all of the registration entries were copied and sent to the General Register Office (GRO).
So, there are two versions of the registers, an original held at the local Register Office and
a copy held at the General Register Office. Indexes to both of these register sets are finding
there way online via websites such as Cheshire BMD and Free BMD. Although the GRO copies have national
coverage, they are well known for their errors and omissions due to the copying process that
created them. By working from the original registers the local BMD websites aim to offer a more
accurate and complete set compared to the GRO versions.

The aim of the tutorials on this page is to
introduce the various websites in the Local BMD Project and explain how to
get the best from them, and also highlight the differences between them and the GRO versions.

The Tutorials

Since the beginning of the Local BMD Project I have had the pleasure
and honour of being asked to speak at various Family History Society
and U3A meetings to talk
about the various Local BMD websites and how to get the best results from them. I'm usually asked to
speak for about an hour, so some of my examples often can't be used due to the time constraints.

One suggestion made to me was to turn my talk into a series of videos, so here they are. This series
of short video tutorials are my talk split into self-contained small chunks. I recommend that you
view them in order first, but then dip in at random if you need a refresher.

The tutorials are all on the YouTube website and so I hope that the
video controls should be familiar to most of
you. I recommend that you view these in full-screen mode by using the YouTube control which will appear in the
bottom right of the video once you have started playing it.

Introduction to these tutorials and the basic information on civil registration.

Layout of the Local BMD websites : an introduction to the various pages within the Local BMD Project websites.

Births part 1 : starting with a wide search and then homing in on an entry.

Births part 2 : should you search using full names or just initials?

Births part 3 : covering the options for searching using mother's maiden name.

Marriages part 1 : demonstrating a marriage search and comparing the results to the GRO versions.

Marriages part 2 : demonstrating a further marriage search based on just knowing a lady's married name.

Deaths : completing the picture demonstrating a search for a death.

Multi-region search and multiple marriages : demonstrating how multiple regions can be searched in one go, and the significance of two separate marriage entries for one couple.

Name Variations : showing how to search based on the sound of a name.

Summary and Orders Pages : showing the features of the Summary and Ordering pages.

Downloading the Results : demonstrating the two places from which search results can be saved to disc.

Differences between GRO and Local Regions : highlighting the differences between the regions and districts used by the local register offices and the GRO.

Introduction

An introduction to the content of this series and
giving basic details on the civil registration process.

Tutorial Length: 5:58 mins

The book mentioned in the introduction and shown here on the left is an excellent guide
to all aspects of tracing birth, marriages and
deaths in the UK, covering parish registers, civil registration, non-conformist registers,
overseas events and much more.

Also mentioned in the introduction are the two books by Michael Whitfield Foster - A Comedy of Errors.
These can be obtained directly from the author on his
website.

Layout of the Local BMD websites

This tutorial covers the basic content of the various Local BMD websites and demonstrates where to find
the various pages on the websites and what you will find on them.

Tutorial Length: 5:09 mins

Births Searching - Part 1

This tutorial demonstrates a search of the births indexes, showing how you can start with a wide search
and then gradually narrow down the search options to improve your chances of finding an entry. This tutorial
also covers how to order a copy certificate. This is the longest of the main tutorials on the Local BMDs, but
if you only have time to watch one, then this would be the one to look at.

Tutorial Length: 12:46 mins.

Births Searching - Part 2

In this second tutorial on births we see a comparison between the results when searching on a full first-name and when using just an initial.

Tutorial Length: 4:04 mins.

Births Searching - Part 3

In this third tutorial on births the options for searching via mother's maiden name are explained.

Tutorial Length: 5:01 mins.

Marriages Searching - Part 1

This first tutorial on marriages covers the basic features of a marriage search, and compares the results
to those you might see using the GRO's data. The Adjacent Entries feature on the Summary Page is also
demonstrated.

Tutorial Length: 7:44 mins.

Marriages Searching - Part 2

The second tutorial on marriages covers a further example of searching where you might know a lady's
married name, but not her maiden name.

Tutorial Length: 4:41 mins

Deaths Searching

Death searches are covered here, showing a basic search, then following on with a search for a person
born in a specific year.

Tutorial Length: 5:07 mins.

Multi-Region Searches

This tutorial covers the multi-region search option that allows all the regions involved in the
Local BMD Project to be searched in one go. Multiple marriages are also touched on.

Tutorial Length: 5:22 mins.

Spelling Variations

Lost an ancestor? Possibly their name was spelled differently, or just mis-spelled. This tutorial covers
the various options for searches that look for names based on how they sound, rather than how they were
spelled.

Tutorial Length: 7:35 mins.

Summary Page Features

The Summary page has several useful features that have not been talked about in the previous tutorials, such
as the ability to change the order in which the entries are displayed on the Summary page.

Tutorial Length: 5:03 mins.

Downloading Results to files

The two places where your search results can be downloaded to files are demonstrated here. The tutorial
mentions Libre Office's free spreadsheet program, but obviously any
spreadsheet will open the saved files equally well.

Tutorial Length: 5:36 mins.

Local BMD to GRO BMD region name differences

The GRO often combined BMD data from several regions into one larger region, so there is often a difference
of region and district names between the Local BMD and GRO BMD. This tutorial highlights an example of
this, and also demonstrated how you can confirm that the index pages are from equivalent areas.

A complete office suite of programs can be found on the LibreOffice
website. Includes a spreadsheet program, word processor, multimedia presentations and more. With the aim of
being compatible with and a replacement for Microsoft's Office suite. All for free!

Discover the meaning of your name.

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